To Change One's World
by Tsunyandere
Summary: A new paranormal club opens up at school. Ryuuji remembers what Minorin said about changing her world and how she stopped believing that she would ever see things such as ghosts. He is certain that, with the help of this club, he can help bring her one step closer to changing her world. (Told from Taiga's POV. This will be a creepy horror story later on!)


Hello everyone. This story is told from Taiga's point of view for the most part. I don't think, despite the premise, that I will take it in a Ryuuji x Minorin direction. I may use this to change how Ryuuji and Taiga recognize their love for each other. Or I may end it after the scary part of the story! I am a horror writer who wrote a lot of very grim stuff that I am known for. This is something that won't be as grim or dark as my usual stuff but I think I can pull off bringing Toradora into a horror scene without it being too extreme and still FEELING like Toradora :) Please feel free to drop reviews on what you think as I write each chapter and I will likely take what people say into consideration as the story progress! Thank you so much for reading!

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**Chapter 1: Back to School**

"Taiga! Taiga! Hey it's getting late!" A voice yelled at the tiny brown-haired girl lying on a large bed in the center of the room. Taiga was completely under her blankets and, although she could hear him, she did not feel like getting out of bed. She lied there, pretending to be in a deep sleep and, when the noise settled down she opened her left eye to see if he was gone. But, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a tall short-haired man with small eyes staring down at her smiling. "Hey breakfa-" He said softly. But seeing his face so close to hers immediately after opening her eyes startled her, so in a quick reaction, she punched him in the face sending him flying against the wall before he could finish his sentence.

"Stupid! Don't just watch people while they are sleeping!" Taiga shouted. The sudden adrenaline rush gave her the energy she needed to jump out of bed. However, she completely ignored the bewildered Ryuuji who was still sitting with his back against the wall. Still in her long white nightgown with her messy morning hair, she brushed past him, flicked her hair and snubbed him with a "Humph!" before exiting her room and slamming the door shut.

It took only seconds for her nose to pick up the scent of steamed white rice, miso soup and various seasoned vegetables which Ryuuji had cooked. Taiga's mouth opened wide as she let out a loud yawn, clenched her fists and stretched her arms high into the air. Her sudden burst of energy was gone and she fell back into a fatigued slump, barely managing to focus on the food which was neatly placed on a small table in the living room with a pair of chopsticks mounted on a stand.

Taiga rubbed her eyes and walked over to her breakfast. Normally, she would eat at Ryuuji's house, but she slept too late and he would often bring her food and wake her up whenever this happened. Picking up the chopsticks, she smiled a little and, just as he walked in, she wiped the smile off her face and ignored him. She did, in fact, appreciate the meal but being woken up like that annoyed her a lot, so she intentionally turned her head away from Ryuuji as he walked closer to her.

He rubbed his head and said, "We gotta leave in 15 minutes or we'll be late," before walking over to the drapes which hung over the large windows in the living room and opened them. A sudden burst of sunlight flowed into the house and nearly blinded Taiga as she moved her hands over her face to shield her sensitive morning eyes. "Ugh..." She groaned while turning her head away from the light. Taiga only wanted to go back to sleep but she knew Ryuuji would pester her if she even suggested it. Staring at all of the delicious food, she took a deep breath, grabbed her chopsticks and began shoveling it all into her mouth at record speeds.

"Hey! You shouldn't eat so fast or you'll choke on your food... " Ryuuji said with a sigh but Taiga simply pretended he didn't exist. "There's a stain on the window." He said with great concern as he walked over to the sink to grab a sponge and some cleaner.

Taiga finished the last of her food, placed the chopsticks inside her bowl of rice to show that she was done eating and walked into her room to get dressed for school. She threw her red buttoned school uniform on with black knee socks and a blue mini-skirt and then took her blue book bag. She took a quick glance into the mirror on her dresser and sighed as she noticed that her hair was messier than usual, so she took her brush and gave her hair a quick grooming before heading out the door, completely leaving Ryuuji behind, as he was preoccupied with what she thought of as useless cleaning.

He caught up with Taiga as she was walking out the front door and down the stone steps towards the sidewalk, "Wait for me!" Ryuuji said but Taiga kept walking, completely ignoring his existence. He waved a carefully wrapped bento box in front of her and, with a sigh, she snatched it out of his hands as if they were playing a game of keep away. Taiga felt this was going to be a bad day, especially forgetting her lunch like that. She was already feeling moody: Although she got to be around Kitamura a lot during summer vacation, she had not made any real progress with their relationship despite becoming closer as friends.

Gazing up at the blue skies and down at the trees which were planted along each side of the roads leading up to the school, Taiga felt that the neighborhood was unusually quiet around this time with not even a single student in the area. She stopped and looked back up at the sky as a long gust of wind blew through the area, her hair dancing through the air creating a shimmering display of brown contrasting beautifully with the sunlight before clouds started moving in and blocked the sunlight briefly.

"Ahh! The vacation was great!" Ryuuji said with a smile and a slight blush on his face. "Kushieda and I really talked a lot."  
"Shut up." Taiga replied hastily, wiping away some of her hair that was covering her eyes. _What was he so happy about anyways?_ _It's not like he made much progress with Minorin either! They just talked a little and that was it._ "Minorin..."she said to herself. _Ryuuji Minorin, Kitamura and myself. _It was Kitamura that she loved but whenever she thinks back to Ryuuji and Minorin's bonding at Ami's beach house, she...  
"What's wrong? Didn't you get to spend a lot of time with-" But Ryuuji was interrupted before he could finish.

"Damnit!" Taiga shouted as she shook her head in frustration. She raised her fist, hit a brick wall next to her while grinding her teeth and scowling angrily. _Ryuuji seemed so comfortable around Minorin but I could not even calm myself down around Kitamura. _She thought to herself and, of course, that was it after all. _I was only angry at Ryuuji's success and my failure right?_ Taiga turned the corner leading up the hill towards the school with Ryuuji right behind her.

_Hmm?_ She thought as she turned her head over her shoulder to look at Ryuuji who was clumsily stuffing a piece of paper into his pocket. She was going to say something to him but a high pitched cheerful voice started projecting just as they were half way up the hill.

"Yay! Yay! Kitamura go! Yay! Yay Kitamura go! Go!" shouted a familiar voice from the softball field. Taiga immediately raced up the hill and ducked behind a wall, peeking her head out ever so slightly. Ryuuji and her often caught Minorin's and Kitamura's morning and afternoon practices but Taiga would often hide whenever Kitamura looked in their direction.

Minorin was as cheerful as ever, standing on the sidelines watching Kitamura at the home plate with a bat in hand. She was wearing a blue and white cheerleader uniform with a blue mini skirt and the Japanese character for good luck(幸) was printed on the front of her white shirt. She was cheering enthusiastically, kicking her legs in the air while waving two white pom-poms, her short red hair danced around delicately through the air. Kitamura was holding a wooden softball bat wearing his usual baseball uniform which consisted of a white buttoned shirt with another red shirt underneath and white pants sporting a white baseball cap which covered much of his handsome black hair.

"He looks so cool!" Taiga said while placing her hands under her chin and blushing profusely, as her mouth opened wide staring in complete admiration. Kitamura held the bat loosely while steadily watching the pitcher.

"Goooo Kitamura! Go go go!" Minorin cheered. Taiga wanted to cheer him on too but, as she stood up and attempted to raise her hand in the air, she found herself suddenly unable to move. She started blushing and trembling nervously before quickly ducking behind the fenced wall, completely succumbing to her shyness. It was frustrating to her that, even after the time spent together at the villa, she could not even muster the courage to cheer Kitamura on. Taiga gritted her teeth and stood once more, raising her hand into the air and said shyly, "G-go K-Kita...mura..." which was completely inaudible to anyone except Ryuuji, who was crouched right next to her. She had almost forgotten that he was there amidst her admiration of Kitamura. She looked up at Ryuuji to see him completely entranced by Minorin's cheering and dancing.

She felt her temper flare as she looked over at his blushing face, his mouth was agape with some drool hanging from the corner of his lip and his hands were placed firmly on his cheeks. Seeing him drooling like some perverted dog was infuriating to her. "Hey mongrel, what do you think you're doing drooling like some dog in heat?" She raised her fist up to him, ready to strike. His eyes widened in surprise as he looked up at the angry tiger. Ryuuji raised his hands forward as if to shield himself from her before proceeding to back away but she followed up with a sudden kick to the chest. He fell on his butt and started crawling away backwards but, as she was going to hit him again, the sound of cheering from the other players and Minorin echoed throughout the field.

"Ahh!" Taiga said nervously as she looked at the now smiling Kitamura who took off his baseball cap and flung it towards home plate as he made his run to first, second and third base before running back to home, his short hair waving gently through the air. Several people patted him on the back and congratulated him. Taiga felt disappointed because thanks to that distraction, she had missed his star performance. Even though this was only a practice game with the school team, it was still important to her. She tilted her head downwards and sighed with disappointment.

"Aisaka! Takasu!" Shouted Kitamura. The commotion from Taiga kicking Ryuuji must have caught their attention as he and Minorin ran over to them. Ryuuji picked himself up off the ground, his face flushed with embarrassment from being seen in that position. Minorin thrust her hips at Kitamura and Kitamura did the same to her. They both threw their arms in the air leaning diagonally which formed the letter V, Minorin's pom-pom's dangled loosely from her left hand.

"V-I-C-T-O-R-Y! Victory!" They both said in unison before each extending their right hands forward, forming a V shape with their index and middle fingers.  
"Hehe! Takasu! Fight on!" Minorin said to Ryuuji as she grinned cheerfully with a wide smile and closed half-moon shaped eyes.  
"Aisaka! Fight on!" Kitamura said to Taiga, sharing the same cheerful expression as Minorin.

Taiga and Ryuuji stood there confused by this sudden burst of energy so early in the morning. Although it was not out of the ordinary for these two people to act eccentric and strange, Taiga never quite knew how to react and always stood there speechless.

"Fight on!" Ryuuji said stupidly. Taiga looked up at him, he had such a determined, yet stupid look on his face as he smiled back at Minorin and while extending his right hand forward to also form the V shape with his fingers. It irritated her for some reason but, as she looked back up at Kitamura's bright smile she merely froze, unable to react.

"That's right! A Morning Warrior is always up bright and early, ready to train hard for the coming battles!" Minorin said as she stood up straight, grasped her pom-poms and started waving them around in no particular pattern.  
"Haha! The early bird gets the worm as they say!" Kitamura said as he laughed heartily, putting his hands on his hips and standing up with a straight posture.

Taiga failed to share their enthusiasm as she could easily sleep until noon and still not want to get out of bed. Nonetheless, she looked at Kitamura and grinned nervously while nodding her head.

"Until we meet again on the battlefield! Taiga, Takasu!" Minorin said.  
"See you! Aisaka, Takasu!" Kitamura said.

And, with that, the overly-energetic pair marched away. Ryuuji stood there staring gawking at Minorin who was leading Kitamura towards the school with her pom-poms waving frantically through the air, both of them chanting "Victory! Victory!"

Taiga sighed. Now that she thought about it, was Minorin part of the cheerleading squad or was she simply supporting the male softball team? She shrugged it off as unimportant. She felt this nagging presence behind her and, as she turned around, she saw Ryuuji still staring intently at Minorin. _Humph, just like that dog, drooling over her in that cheerleading uniform. It just pisses me off! _Taiga thought to herself. He had lit the fuse and, any second, she would explode with the ferocity of a tiger on the prowl.

It did not take Ryuuji long before he noticed the Palmtop Tiger with her eyebrows arched downward, clenching her teeth and cracking the knuckles on her right fist with a dangerous sparkle in her eyes.

"Perverted Mongrel! Drooling over Minorin like that just because she's wearing that outfit! Disgusting dog!" Taiga said fiercely, clenching her fists even tighter than before.  
"That's not it! She's just-" But before he could finish that sentence, he found himself clumsily dodging one of her punches.

Ryuuji ran up the path towards the school at record speeds with Taiga right behind him, shouting. That, if someone did not know any better, they would think that these two he were the star runners at the school track team.

The two calmed down once they reached the double doors leading into the shoe lockers. Each door had two large glass windows resting half way from the top. There were hundreds of tiny wooden shoe cabinets. Taiga and Ryuuji navigated to their designated areas.

As Taiga took off her shoes she looked up at Ryuuji who seemed overly lost in thought. She could always tell as his face had sort of a blank expression followed by a sigh. He was also avoiding eye contact with her. _Was he mad at me?_ She thought as she scowled a little. _Well, he did deserve it after all!_ _It was going to be another boring school day_ Taiga thought, as her slightly angry look turned solemn.

She slipped on her indoor shoes, stood up straight. Part of her brown hair fell over her eyes. Brushing the hair from her face, she turned around to head through the hallway leading to her class, and noticed that Kitamura was already walking off. Taiga had been thinking about Ryuuji all this time and completely forgot Kitamura had come in here too. He would often stop to greet her and Ryuuji here; however, this morning he seemed rather busy. At least that is what she hoped was the case.

"Taiga?" Ryuuji said.  
"Hmm?" She replied.  
"It's nothing. We should hurry to class or we will be late for homeroom." He said as he walked past her, but intentionally slowing down to let her catch up.

Ryuuji and Taiga were always together. She did not have many friends aside from Minorin, but Minorin was always too busy with various activities and part-time jobs to spend much time with her. Her own family had abandoned her so, in a sense, Ryuuji's company was a sort of comfort for her. He was especially helpful to her because of how he always cooked and cleaned, which were two things that she was completely useless with.

Taiga looked over at Ryuuji who was walking down the hall. She smiled brightly, her brown eyes narrowed half way forming a cutesy half-moon shape. She took a deep breath, and ran after him. The hallways were almost empty due to how close it was to the homeroom bell. She looked over at one of the large windows, which lined the walls opposite of the lockers and classroom doors. It was turning gray outside despite it being fairly sunny earlier.

"Hey mongrel? Did you hear on the weather that it was supposed to rain today?" She said with a sigh, as she looked over to him. He was also focused on the gloomy weather outside.  
"Mmm... The weatherman said there was a chance of rain. I brought an umbrella just in case." He replied.

_Sigh... if I get wet from the rain this is his fault for not reminding me about the it._ She thought to herself as irritability settled in. They arrived at their classroom and stepped inside. Students were scattered throughout, chatting with each other in various social groups. Taiga brushed past Ryuuji and took her usual seat in the middle of the classroom.

The day had just begun and she was already exhausted. She wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep, so she put her head back down on the desk.

"Good morning Taiga!" Shouted a cheerful voice. _Bothered again…_ Taiga thought as she lazily turned her head and saw the cheerful red headed Minorin staring down at her with a big bright smile.  
"Good morning." She replied trying to sound cheerful but, for some reason, not even her best friend could brighten her mood.  
"Look!" Minorin said as she held out a rock. It was a curious looking rock, with a smooth gray bottom which had several sharp, yet beautiful crystallized pieces of lime poking out from it that seemed to shimmer in the light.  
"Eh? Where'd you get that?" Taiga inquired. Admittedly, this rock had piqued her curiosity as she had never seen anything like this before.  
"I bought it from a shop on our way back home from the villa! The shop owner said this rock will protect you from ghosts and all kinds of evil spirits! Fu fu fu! With this rock, nothing can hurt me!" She laughed and ran over to Ryuuji. "Hey Takasu! Check this out!"

Taiga put her head back on the table, trying to ignore all the commotion.

"Aisaka!" Said a familiar voice.

She sighed and kept her head down on the desk, trying very hard to pretend that she did not hear her. _Ugh... why do I have to deal with this every day_. She thought to herself.

"Oh my... a sleeping tiger seems so docile, yet it is merely hiding its true nature." She whispered in Taiga's ear.

Taiga wanted to punch her in the face right there, but hoped ignoring her would make her go away faster. She wondered how she survived an entire summer vacation with this girl but it seemed easy enough to avoid her in that big home aside from dinners, shopping trips and time spent on the beach. _Stupid Chihuahua pisses me off_. Taiga thought to herself as she gritted her teeth.

"That reminds me I had a dream last night: I was lying helpless in the middle of a canyon and suddenly a stampede of tigers started charging at me! Ohh it was so scary but then, as they got closer, I realized just how tiny and cute they were! Do you know what this dream could mean?" She said teasingly while feigning innocence.

Taiga willed herself to turn her head and face this annoying girl. Kawashima Ami was her name, but Taiga referred to her as a stupid Chihuahua due to her nature to hide her devilish personality under the guise of something innocent and cute. They had spent the entire summer together with Ryuuji, Kitamura and Minorin but her feelings about Ami did not change all that much and yet, due to being in the same class together, she was forced to tolerate her existence.

"Go away stupid Chi" Taiga growled before resting her head back down on the desk with her chin resting on her arm, facing towards the chalkboard.  
"Kawashima! Look! Look! I found a magazine with you in it from last year! This dress is so beautiful!" Shouted a girl from the back of the class followed by the giggling of several more girls. Ami ran off and Taiga finally closed her eyes. Shortly after, the bell rang and the homeroom teacher shouted for everyone to calm down.

Taiga opened her eyes to watch the teacher slump her way into the classroom, seemingly devoid of all energy as her shoulders slouched forward, her head facing the floor as she dragged her feet. She looked as if she were suffering from a serious illness.

"Ms. Koigakubo?" One of the male students said with deep concern in his voice.  
"Another summer goes by and I am still single..." The teacher said drearily.

All the students immediately resumed their chattering, completely ignoring the teacher who was sighing heavily with her head on her desk. Taiga closed her eyes again, desperately wanting to get at least 15 minutes of sleep before her first class.

"Taiga!" Shouted Ryuuji as he walked over to her and sat in front of her desk. She sighed at the realization that it would be impossible to get a nap in after all.  
"What is it?" Taiga replied irritably.  
"I was just thinking after that talk with Kushieda over the summer. Well... I found this." he reached into his pocket, pulled out a folded piece of paper and placed it on the desk in front of her.

Taiga reached over and unfolded it. It was a flyer advertising a new school club, which had a huge UFO faded in the background with green colors all around the border supposedly to simulate ooze. In the center was a body of text which read:

**"Pwee hee hee!**

The new **paranormal club** is opening up today! We have already started researching some haunted places right in the city or... should we say... in the forest by the school! If you are interested in ghostly stories and want to meet real spirits both vengeful and benevolent then come on down to the first club meeting right after homeroom!

Taiga's right eye twitched before narrowing as she looked up at Ryuuji. _He can't possibly be THIS stupid! _She thought to herself, completely unwilling to believe that he would still consider believing this nonsense after the events at the villa turned out to be Minorin and Kitamura playing tricks on them. "Whatever." She said, completely uninterested in this nonsense.

"I was thinking about asking Kushieda to check out the club with me after homeroom today. He said looking down at the paper, a hint of nervousness in his voice.  
"Do whatever you want!" Taiga replied coldly and put her head back down on the desk. She could not understand why she was feeling so moody today, but hearing Ryuuji wanting to go join a club with Minorin made her feel even worse.  
"Well... I want you to come too." Ryuuji said, his voice seemed pleading. "If you join maybe Kushieda will join too..."

_Sigh... this is really a waste of time but I can't refuse can I?_ Taiga thought to herself as she put her arms back onto the desk and allowed her face to sink back into their comfort.

"Taiga!" Shouted Minorin as she quickly approached the two, still holding her lime colored crystal rock. She eyeballed the flyer sitting on the table, "Paranormal club? Sounds way too scary!" She shuddered.

"Y-yeah... well Taiga and I are going to check it out. The meeting is after homeroom today so..." Ryuuji stumbled on his words, coming to a stop just before asking Minorin to join. Taiga felt her blood boil as he volunteered her to go without her even agreeing to it. She lifted her leg up, reached over and stomped on his foot as hard as she could. Ryuuji yelped, his leg rose into the air as a reaction to the sudden assault.  
"Oww! What was that for?!" Ryuuji said irritably.

"Good luck! Let me know if you find any interesting places! Paranormal Investigator Minori will help you solve all the mysteries! Heehee~!" Minorin laughed eerily before walking off to meet with Kitamura, who was already preparing to leave class for one of his clubs he had together with her. Taiga looked over at the two to see them both waving good bye to her and Ryuuji. She raised her hand and waved awkwardly, still allowing herself to be embarrassed by Kitamura's sudden attention on her and the two of them left the classroom.

"Stupid mongrel! I never said I wanted to go." Taiga shouted irritably as she glared at him. This whole thing angered her, and besides, he failed to ask her to go with them so she assumed that this whole incident was over, put her head back on her desk and pretended he did not exist.

"Taiga! We should still go to the meeting because one of Kushieda's dreams was to meet a real ghost but she has given up on her dreams like this. I just... want to help her change her world!" Ryuuji said with determination.

Taiga looked up at him to see a smug look on his face with his tiny eyes, while playing with the bangs of his hair with his thumb and index finger. The whole thing irritated her and she would much rather sit at her desk and sleep the entire school day away, so she would try one last time to say no and hope he would give up this stupid idea.

"I'm not going! So have fun going alone." She said as she flicked her right hand dismissively.

Ryuuji took both of his hands, grasped her right hand and stared at her pleadingly with that same determined look, "You know I can't just go alone! I'll definitely do something in return to make it up to you I promise! So..."

_Geez... why is this so damn important to him anyways?_ Taiga thought to herself as she looked up at him. "Fine! Fine! I'll go to this stupid club meeting, but it better not be a waste of my time." She said reluctantly. Somehow she knew he would not give up on this idea, although she wondered what exactly he and Minorin talked about during summer vacation.

"Hey Ryuuji. What did you and Minorin talk about that has you so determined to get involved with ghosts? I know she likes spooky things but isn't this a little extreme?" Taiga asked.  
"The night of the fireworks we were talking on the beach and Kushieda said that she was looking for someone to change her world. I... I don't quite understand what she meant by any of this, but I just know that if she could really see a ghost and not some fake ghost that somehow-" Ryuuji said but was interrupted by the class bell.

Taiga stood up, grabbed her bag and proceeded to walk towards the exit of the classroom without saying a word to him. Even though this whole thing irritated her, if it was important to him then she could not refuse.

She looked over her shoulder and shot Ryuuji an approving look. He smiled, grabbed his bag and exited the class with her.


End file.
